Bristler - "Breakthroughs"

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Photo by Melissa McLaughlin

Bristler are an Asbury Park, NJ band made up of members of Yawn Mower and Dana Why. Their latest single, "Breakthroughs," is an indie rock song that's both melodic and noisy. It's as anthemic as anything U2 has put out, just on a smaller scale. There's something very hypnotic about the song, and listening gives the listener a sense of floating. That's not to say that all of "Breakthroughs" is soft and pretty. It also has more bludgeoning moments, and bridges both the quiet and loud without fully doing the whole loud/quiet/loud thing. If you're a fan of bands like Modest Mouse and Death Cab for Cutie, there's a lot you're going to love in "Breakthroughs." 

Lead vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Rudy Meier says of his band's latest single:

“Many years ago, I lent the first guitar I ever owned to a friend of mine because she wanted to learn to play, but never did. Around the time I found myself getting back into writing mode for what would eventually become this album, I hit her up and asked if she still had it. It was at her parents’ house. I went and got it — it’s by no means a great guitar (a $60 Harmony acoustic I got when I was 9 or so), but for obvious sentimental reasons I was ecstatic to have it back. ‘Breakthroughs’ was one of the first songs I came up with on that guitar. I’d set some parameters for myself to work in, namely that each song on the album needed to work in a strictly strummed acoustic format — simple pop structures with an emphasis on melody and lyrical content, with any weirdness to come later. I started by ‘riffisizing’ the chord changes and just trying to pull out a general wonky feel for the meat of the song. Around the same time I also started to feel that every song on the record should have some kind of sonic backdrop I would treat as a distressed canvas.”

You can watch the video for "Breakthroughs" below. Inside, Outside, Upside, Downside is due out February 12 on Mint400 Records, and is available for pre-order here. For more on Bristler, check out the band on Instagram.

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